heath



(No Model.)

J.'H..HEATH.f PIRE BSQAPB LADDER.

aan h Patented July 3, 1883.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JUsTUs H. HEATH, or Morris ooENEEs, NEW YORK.

FIRE-ESCAHE LADDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 280,373, dated July 3,1883"l Application filed Fehruary'Q, 1883. (N o model.)

To all `whom it may concern Be it known that I, J UsrUs HoLLisTER HEATH,of MottsGorners, in the town of Caroline, Tompkins county, New York,have invented" an Improved Fire-Escape Ladder, of which the following isa specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings. Myobject is to make a neat, convenient, strong, and easily-adjustedfire-escape ladder, which shall be out of reach of ordinary use, butreadily brought into use in case of `fire; and the natureof my inventionwill be Aapparent as I describe it.

Figure l is a front elevation of my ladder. Fig. la is a double link ofthe ladder; Fig. 2, the parts of the step-links; Fig. 3, the means ofattaching the upper end of the -ladder to the building; and Fig. 4 showsthe ladder folded in its box beneath a window. Y

In the figures, a is the spring-snap, and ais a hook, by which the upperend is made fast to the staple or ring in the floor or mop-board orother portion of the building, and by which the ladder is supported; andbis abail or loop that has secured to each end of it the chains c or c.These chain-links `may be as many as are requisite, as will be explainedfarther on. To the lower ends of these chain-links arefast the shortside-bar links d d. These are punctured at their lower ends by squareholes, and `fit a squared part of the rung e, so that the pieces d dAare in a fixed position on the rung e. On the ru'ng'e, just outside ofthe pieces d d, are placed the side pieces of the upper steplink, B, andthey are fast by loose j oints made by round apertures 'in their endsand round spaces on the `rungs e e, the burrs fi i/ holding them inplace. Thus is constructed the first or upper step-link of theladder.The second step-link, C, is made quite differently in one respect. Thepieces f f have square holes in both the ends of each, that fit squareportions of the rungs e e, just inside of the pieces f f thus making thesecond link a fixed frame. The same construction of apertures, sidepieces, and rungs, making any number of step-links, is repeated all theway down the ladder, be it of any length it may, until the foot of theladder is reached, when the device A', similar to that ofthe top of theladder, is repeated, consisting of the short pieces d d, correspond-4ing to d d, chain-links c c, corresponding to c c', and bail b,corresponding to I). This device at the foot of the ladder hangsdownward, suspended by the ladder, and not, as at the top, the laddersuspended from it, and it is to regulate and fasten the lower end of theladder. By the step-links, made with fast and loose joints alternately,a peculiar folding compactly of the ladder is provided for, as 6o seenin Fig. 4. For, commencing by the pieces d d', fixed to the rung c, ashas been said, the chains and bail receive the first loose-jointed'step-link folded on them, and the second or tightjointed step-link isfolded on that,.and so on until all the ladder is folded.

I prefer to fold my ladder, which is made light and strong, in a box, g,which is seen in section about the folds of Fig. 4. The lower bentVchain-link or bail, chains, and short- 7o pieces-device is at the topof the box, and by it the unfolding is commenced by putting it out ofthe window, when the unfolding regularly proceeds until all the chain isout of the box; and when this is done it will be found that the chains'cc', with bail b, fold over the sill of the window, and the loop or bailI) is just inside of the window, while the chains c c reach over thewindow-sill and the pieces d d go just outside of the window, and thestep- 8o links reach to the ground, where the bail-andchain device atthe bottom is ready to 'fasten or control the foot ofthe ladder.Chain-links aye placed between the staple af and hook a,

F/ig. 4, or the bail b is hooked on the hook a. S 5 n I prefer to placemy box just inside of the window, where I fasten it either to the floorj or to the mop-board m or sill-casingn of thewindow; but otherplacesmay be more convenient-as, for example, one side of the win- 9odow, when the hook a or the snap a is readily adjusted to the hook orring a, Fig. 4, a chain `connecting the box-staple af", Fig. 4, with thehook or ring a, Fig. 4, .when the ladder-bail is hooked there for use.The snap-hook also allows the ladder to be used in another or anyA roomwherethere is a staple, the ladder being detached from its box, and soon of other adjustments that might be fully described.

By the snap-hook or the hook the ladder roo may be secured to staplesplaced in the walls outside of the building-as between the windows-orother similar adjustments` of it be l ble step-links D. The otheradvantages and 2o made. Thus I make a chain-ladder With steplinks: atthe top a flexible device; next a step-link With loose-jointed sidepieces; next a framed step-link, and'so on, repeating such step-links, Icomplete my ladder to the foot flexible part-a ladder folding compactlyin a box, Whose dimensions are notvery cumbersome, since a ladder sixtyfeet long can be folded into a box about eight to ten inches Wide,fourteen inches long, and fifteen inches high, strong enough to sustaina load of hundreds of pounds Weight.

At is a second rung, placed in the middle of a step-link. In that casethe siderpieces, f

f', Ste., are made the length of two steps,which makes the box longerand less in height. Letters A A B C D are used for whole parts, as theflexible device A, step-links I3 C, and douy uses of my invention areapparent.

I claiml. A chain step -link ladder constructedwith framed step-links Cand loose-jointed steplinks B, fast by their respective rungs and al- 25ternat'ely one above each other, and constructed and operatedsubstantially as set forth.

2. The combination of the upper flexible loop, A, the loose-jointedstep-link lB, the framed step-link C, with as many such alter- 3o natestep-links similar to B and C as are necessary to make Ythe length ofthe ladder, and the foot flexible loop, substantially as set forth.

JUSTUS H. HEATH. Witnesses:

S. J. PARKER, F. F. PARKER.

